If you’re going to be kidnapped, the way Victoria Mooney of Lebanon and Cassidy Cunningham of Sweet Home were abducted is possibly the best.
The two Girl Scouts were abducted by older Scouts and forced to eat candy and have a good time during last week’s Girl Scout Day Camp at Happy Valley Tree Farm off Bellinger Scale Road.
“Every year, the seventh graders and older girls come out and kidnap the kids who are going into the sixth grade because we’re going to be brand new cadets.” Mooney said. “They take us up the hill and give us candy.”
“They were telling stories, and we pigged out on licorice,” Cunningham said.
Listening to music, having a good time and eating candy was fine, but it came with a price as the two didn’t feel so well and were looking for a place to get out of the afternoon heat and rest a bit.
The annual Day Camp had 68 Scouts in attendance, Lebanon Service Unit Manager Kathy Fitzwater said. They were busy with a variety of activities, making patches, archery, learning knots and making totem poles and rain sticks in keeping with this year’s theme, “Girl Scouts on Safari.”
The Day Camp had a visit from Smokey Bear and a course in self-defense from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
“They love the bow and arrow most and the monkey bridge,” Fitzwater said. Boy Scouts built the monkey bridge at Happy Valley.
“I like lunch,” Cunningham added.
Part of the Day Camp is tradition, and “the new cadets always get kidnapped,” Fitzwater said. The new cadets camp out the whole week, while junior Scouts spend one night.
Individual troops may camp out if they are with their leaders, Fitzwater said, but individual Scouts often go home at night during the weeklong event.
Nearby, a group of Scouts talked about drugs and how to respond when they are offered. They talked about whether to report drug use and when.
At another table, Scouts worked on a community service project.
On July 27, a new multiple sclerosis support group will meet at Waterloo County Park, Judy Wall of Lebanon troop 569 said. A good friend of hers realized there was no support group in the Lebanon area and organized the potluck picnic.
The Girl Scouts spend much of their time making crafts they’ll take home for themselves, Wall said, but in this particular instance, they were making decorations, corsages and leis for the potluck, which will have a Hawaiian luau theme.
They used bright colors for the happy feelings they evoke, Wall said. The Scouts will help at the potluck, including helping multiple sclerosis victims to the picnic from their vehicles. The women will be given corsages and the men leis.
Attending Day Camp were troops from Lebanon, Sweet Home, Brownsville and Halsey.